Joseph Nicolas de L’Isle was the older brother of Guillaume de L’Isle. He was an astronomer and cartographer who spent several years working for and in Russia. With Kirilou he created the first Russian atlas, “Atlas Russicus” (1745). He was also one of the founders of the Academy of Science in St. Petersburg. In 1747 he returned to Paris with a major map collection from Russia (Tooley 395; Moreland and Bannister, 132).

During his time in Russia, Joseph Nicolas de L’Isle developed this map of the Northwest Passage based on an “apocryphal” account from Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte who was said to have found the Northwest Passage by following an inlet at 53 degrees north latitude. This depiction is seen in this map by following Admiral de Fonte’s route in 1640 as it leads northward to “Lac Bernarda” and eastward to “Lac de Fonte” and eventually to Hudson’s Bay. De L’Isle also followed Juan de Fuca’s account of finding an inland sea in 1592 and so drew a “Mer de l’Ouest” with one entrance found by de Fuca and another allegedly found by Martin d’Aguilar in 1603 (Wheat, 141). Though this map was first published in 1752, this particular version of it was engraved and published as a supplement to Didier Robert de Vaugondy’s “Encylopedie” (1779) in which he meant to cover the depiction of the fabled Northwest Passage (Wagner, 342, entry 637; Phillips, 627, no. 1195).

Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1786) was Royal Geographer and Censor in France (Tooley, 541). The Robert de Vaugondy family was descended from the Nicolas Sanson family and had much of his map plates. The family combined his plates with those of Hubert Jaillot’s plates after his death in 1712. Combining the map plates and thoroughly revising the earlier engravings, the family created the “Atlas Universal” (1750-1757) (Moreland and Bannister, 136). Didier’s work includes: “Mexico” (1749), “Maps in Atlas Universal” (1750-1757), “Nouvel Atlas portative” (1784), and “America Septentrionale” (1761). His atlases were later reissued by Delamarche (Tooley, 541).